A woman does her cooking while carrying her sick child on her back at the Muong Nhe medical center in Dien Bien Province, northern Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A little and poorly-equipped medical center in an rural district of a northwestern mountainous Vietnamese province is always exuding warmth thanks to its free kitchen, where people can cook their own meals while taking care of their hospitalized family members.

Most of the patients at the clinic in Muong Nhe District, Dien Bien Province come from underprivileged farming families of various ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao, and Ha Nhi.

When a member suffers from sickness, it is understandably a burden for the whole family to cover the medical fees.

The medical center has dedicated a shared kitchen, where people can do their own cooking free of charge, to help patients and their families cut down expenses while staying for treatment.

The charitable kitchen is equipped with six stoves and 32 cupboards to store foods and supplies.

Kitchen cabinets are marked with numbers to help people easily know where their foods are stored. Photo: Tuoi Tre

“The medical center has stoves, cupboards, dishes, utensils and people can freely use any of these pieces of equipment,” Hieu, a doctor working at the center, said.

Ly Thi Dua, a local woman whose fingers were cut off by a farming machine, is receiving treatment at the Muong Nhe medical center.

As her husband now works away in a southern province, their daughter, fourth-grader Gia Thi Nhia, has to stay with her at the medical center.

“No other members of my family are available to take care of my mother, so I come here to cook for her,” Nhia explained.

“I have been cooking all the time at home, so this is not a big problem for me.”